This Week in Milwaukee: Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, 2017

Thursday,
Jan. 26
Tom Segura @ The Pabst Theater, 7 p.m.Los Angeles comedian Tom Segura was a contestant on NBC’s “Last Comic
Standing,” but he owes much of his following to the decidedly
non-network-TV-friendly material he shares on his podcast, “Your Mom’s House,”
which he co-hosts with his wife Christina Pazsitzky. Each show provides a
(sometimes graphic) glimpse into their domestic life. Last year saw the debut
of Segura’s Netflix special Mostly
Stories, which includes some lessons in male anatomy and a story about Mike
Tyson.

Louis the Child @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.Some electronic acts aim for the clubs; others target the charts. The
awkwardly christened Chicago duo Louis the Child take the latter approach,
mining the mass-appeal sounds of Top 40 pop. In 2015, they earned an
influential fan in Taylor Swift, who waxed enthusiastically about their
feel-good single, “It’s Strange.” In Chainsmokers fashion, they’ve done some of
their best work in collaboration with other artists (usually women), including
their 2016 singles “Weekend” with Icona Pop and “Fire” with a singer named
Evalyn.

Quinn Dahle
@ Comedy Café, 7:30 p.m.Don’t let his current Los Angeles address mislead you. Quinn Dahle’s
comedy is very much grounded in the interests and attitudes of middle America.
The stand-up comedian lived in Minnesota, Colorado and Arizona before moving to
L.A., and his observational comedy draws heavily from those experiences. Dahle
has made appearances on shows including “The Tonight Show,” “Lopez Tonight” and
“Last Call with Carson Daly,” and, like so many of the ’80s and ’90s comics
that inspired him, he’s hoping to make his breakthrough with his own sitcom
based on his life. He’ll do multiple shows with comedians Christian Duguay and
William Krolowitz this weekend at the Comedy Café. (Through Saturday, Jan. 28).

Saturday, Jan. 28
MELT w/ Luxi, Construct, Piñata, Fortune and The Demix @ Quarter’s Rock ’N Roll
Palace, 10 p.m.The Milwaukee experimental electronic music series MELT has a lot more
company than it used to have these days, with new electronic music showcase
shows springing up nearly every month. But for music fans looking for an
overview of some of the less-visible corners of Milwaukee’s thriving electronic
music scene, these shows are still one of the best places to start. This latest
installment is headlined by one of the scene’s rising stars, Luxi, an
electro-pop producer who this month released her most
vibrant album yet, the drum-and-bass-tinged Geometric Universe.

Pablove 8 @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.Milwaukee’s Jeff Castelaz left the city to carve out a career in the music
industry in Los Angeles, where he co-founded Dangerbird Records and went on to
become the president of Elektra Records. He’s kept close ties to the city,
though. Each year, he returns to put on the annual Pablove Benefit Concert to
raise funds for pediatric cancer treatment and research for his Pablove
Foundation, which he created to honor his late son, Pablo. Each year’s show
features a unique lineup of Milwaukee musicians, and this year’s is no
different. It features Goran of The Gufs, Willy Porter, Christopher Porterfield
of Field Report and Brett Newski, as well as a performer from beyond the
Milwaukee music scene: KT Tunstall, the Scottish rock singer-songwriter who
scored two big international hits in the ’00s, “Black Horse and the Cherry
Tree” and “Suddenly I See”—which Hillary Clinton used as the campaign song for
her first presidential bid.

Jim Jefferies @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.Angry and brash but with a genuine sense of humility, Australian stand-up
Jim Jefferies made a name for himself in England, where he was dubbed
“Britain’s most offensive stand-up comic” by Q Magazine. Obscenities spew from the Aussie’s mouth as he uses
virtually any controversial topic as ammunition against social decency,
chivalry and any other moral philosophy he can line up in the crosshairs of his
vulgarity. Jefferies’ 2009 HBO special, I
Swear to God, proved to be his breakout; he’s since followed it up with a series
of comedy specials (most recently Freedumb
for Netflix) and the FX series “Legit,” a loosely autobiographical show that
finds the comedian living with his alcoholic roommate Steve and Steve’s younger
brother Billy, who suffers from advanced muscular dystrophy. Though it only ran
for two seasons, the show won praise for its considerate, if unflinching, depiction
of life for the disabled.

Wednesday, Feb. 1
Drive-By Truckers @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.True to their name, Drive-By Truckers never stay in one place too long. The
Athens, Ga., rockers followed up 2008’s revelatory Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, a stripped-down and largely acoustic
album recorded after guitarist Jason Isbell left the band, with 2010’s The Big To-Do, one of the group’s most
rocking albums; a disc that owes particular debt to the roots rock of Tom
Petty. The following year’s Go-Go Boots
was much more acoustic and stripped down, and though it felt a bit tossed-off
compared to the two great records it followed, even on a lesser Drive-By
Truckers album the bittersweet songwriting of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley
offered plenty to love. Cooley takes an even bigger role on the group’s new English Oceans, writing a full six songs
and for the first time singing lead on one of Hood’s songs. Just ahead of the
election, last year’s protest-minded American
Band featured a nearly 50/50 songwriting split between the two.

Phox w/ Cuddle Magic @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.Few Wisconsin bands have made bigger waves in recent years than the
Madison-area indie-pop ensemble Phox, and it’s easy to see why. The band has an
invitingly unpretentious sound that finds a midpoint between the stylized folk
of Bon Iver and the uplifting soul of Fitz and the Tantrums. It’s a compelling
combination, and it’s perfectly packaged by singer Monica
Martin, whose soft, smoky voice soars above the banjo and the triumphant
percussion. Recorded at Justin Vernon’s April Base studio in Eau Claire, the
group’s self-titled album featured some of the smartest arrangements of any
2014 folk-pop release. The band says they’ve been at work on their sophomore
album, though it’s unclear when that record might finally get a name or release
date.